About the public’s health
How the pandemic might play out in 2021 and beyond: A really good article from Nature that uses different scenarios in modeling simulations.
Do Americans Face Greater Mental Health and Economic Consequences from COVID-19? Comparing the U.S. with Other High-Income Countries: Among the comparison findings: “More than 30 percent of U.S. adults reported they’ve been faced with negative economic effects from the coronavirus pandemic, a significantly higher percentage than in any of the other countries. These effects include being unable to pay for basic necessities like food, heat, or rent; using up most personal savings; or borrowing money or taking out a loan.
Rates were also high in Canada (24%) and Australia (21%). Meanwhile, only 6 percent to 7 percent of German and Dutch respondents reported these financial hardships.”
‘Discrepancies’ in California’s case data cast doubt as deaths continue to rise: Yet another case of inaccurate data. “In the past week, daily deaths have increased 20%, while flawed data showed cases were down 17%.”
New University of Chicago center will collect thousands of X-rays, CT scans to aid with COVID-19 research:”University of Chicago Medicine will be home to a new, massive database of medical images from COVID-19 patients that researchers can use to better understand and fight the illness, with support from a $20 million federal grant.
The images — such as X-rays and CT scans — will be collected at the University of Chicago and be open source, meaning they’ll be available to researchers around the world. The mainly virtual center created under the contract with the National Institutes of Health expects to collect more than 10,000 images in its first three months.”
Virus testing in the US is dropping, even as deaths mount: ”An Associated Press analysis found that the number of tests per day slid 3.6% over the past two weeks to 750,000, with the count falling in 22 states. That includes places like Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri and Iowa where the percentage of positive tests is high and continuing to climb, an indicator that the virus is still spreading uncontrolled.”
About hospitals and health systems
Indiana University Health to build $1.6B hospital: Many building projects have been scrapped or put on hold with the COVID-19 pandemic, making this announcement noteworthy. “Upon completion of the hospital, expected in 2026, operations of two IU Health adult hospitals in Indianapolis will be consolidated.
IU Health said that by combining operations of IU Health Methodist and at IU Health University Hospital, the organization will eliminate costly duplication of high-acuity services.”
About pharma
Trump to order government to buy certain drugs solely from U.S. factories, setting up major shakeup for industry:”President Trump will sign an executive order Thursday directing the federal government to buy certain drugs solely from American factories…
It remains unclear, however, how broadly the order will be implemented — the executive order does not specify what drugs it covers. Instead, the order directs the Food and Drug Administration to decide which medicines will be subject to the new requirements, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro told reporters Thursday.”
New Rare Antibiotic Drugs Get Faster FDA Approval Pathway:”Companies making antibiotics for small patient populations will be able to use smaller, more streamlined clinical trials, the Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday. The guidance gives companies more clarity on what is expected when applying for the faster antibiotic approval process. The pathway is the agency’s latest push to generate more novel antibiotics, which typically aren’t high on companies’ priority lists because they don’t make a lot of money.”
Moderna will charge $32 to $37 for COVID-19 vaccine, CEO says: The headline speaks for itself.
Part D plans don't push beneficiaries to take brand-name drugs over generics: study: “Medicare Part D plans largely design their formularies to encourage use of generics, despite some criticism to the contrary, a new study shows.
Researchers led by a team at the Kaiser Family Foundation and Vanderbilt University analyzed more than 4.1 million Part D plan and product combinations, and found that in 84% of cases only the generic was covered by the insurer.
In 15% of cases, the plan covered both the generic and the brand-name product, according to the study published in Health Affairs.”
Mallinckrodt May File for Bankruptcy, Undercutting Opioid Settlement:”Drugmaker Mallinckrodt PLC said it is considering filing for chapter 11 protection over a clash with U.S. regulators and liabilities stemming from the opioid epidemic, potentially undercutting a proposed opioid settlement with state and local governments.
Mallinckrodt said Tuesday it has been in negotiations with creditors about a potential bankruptcy filing covering the parent company and most of its subsidiaries to address opioid-related liabilities, corporate debts and a dispute with regulators over its Acthar Gel medication.”
About health insurance
Major U.S. Health Insurers Report Big Profits, Benefiting From the Pandemic:”Some of the largest companies, including Anthem, Humana and UnitedHealth Group, are reporting second-quarter earnings that are double what they were a year ago. And while insurance profits are capped under the Affordable Care Act, with the requirement that consumers should benefit from such excesses in the form of rebates, no one should expect an immediate windfall.”
Medicare payment rules for 2021: 11 notes for hospital execs: A good summary of the payment rules, some of which have been previously discussed here.
Fraudulent coding led CMS to overpay Cigna $1.4B, Justice Department says: “The U.S. Justice Department accused Cigna of using improper diagnostic codes to artificially inflate reimbursement for its Medicare Advantage plans by $1.4 billion in a lawsuit.
The 64-page lawsuit, filed Aug. 4 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, claimed that from 2012 until 2017, Cigna's HealthSpring unit, which runs Medicare plans, submitted false risk adjustment claims to CMS that led to improper reimbursement increases. The Justice Department accuses Cigna of submitting codes for conditions that its Medicare Advantage members didn't have, weren't recorded in medical records or weren't based on clinical data.”
About healthcare quality
CMS outlines long-awaited changes to hospital star ratings: “The proposed change was tucked into a proposed payment rule released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on Monday for outpatient hospital departments and ambulatory surgical centers. The rule touches on the use of latent variable modeling (LVM, which combines and summarizes multiple pieces of information and is used to calculate a hospital's star rating…
If finalized, the rule would discontinue use of the LVM for quality measure group scores and instead adopt a “simple average of measure scores to calculate measure group scores,” the proposed rule stated. “This method would average the measure scores a hospital reports within a given measure group, which have been standardized, to calculated the measure group scores."
See: Meaningful Measures/Patients Over Paperwork